Articles in Category: Credit Issues

July 3, 2020

FHA Home Loan Credit Score Requirements: FICO Scores And More

Many borrowers worry about their credit scores ahead of an application for an FHA home loan, and it’s hard for some to gauge whether they have sufficient credit to get a loan approved. FHA loans have more forgiving credit requirements and borrowers should not assume they do not qualify for a home loan without discussing their circumstances with a participating lender. When is a low credit score too low? FHA home loan rules specify that the lender must ensure a 500 FICO score (the very minimum) in order to qualify for an FHA mortgage, but your credit score numbers don’t tell the whole story. Lender Requirements For Home Loan Approval Vary You may read that FHA loan rule minimums for FICO scores do not always reflect the participating lender’s credit | more...

June 26, 2020

First Time Home Buyers: Improve Your Credit With Credit Monitoring

By Bruce Reichstein

The COVID-19 pandemic has created economic uncertainty for many current and future homeowners. Many borrowers may have experienced financial setbacks during the coronavirus outbreak in America, and the years to come will involve a lot of credit repair and related efforts American consumers will need to get back on track financially. Protecting your credit is more important than ever–do you know what can hurt your FICO scores? Actively monitoring your credit is an important option–there are services that keep track of your credit report and learn about what affects your scores. It may be tempting to use free credit monitoring offers but financial advisors recommend comparing features on free offers versus subscription-based services. You may find that paying a small fee gets you much better options and features for managing | more...

Do You Know How To Dispute Your Credit Reports?

June 22, 2020

Why You Should Monitor Your Credit As A First-Time Home Buyer

By Joe Wallace

Are you a first-time home buyer interested in buying or building a home? New borrowers should monitor their credit for signs of identity theft, erroneous information, and outdated credit data; doing so improves your chances at home loan approval by ruling out issues that may be related to credit report problems that are not your fault. Some future homeowners already pay strict attention to their credit, but not everyone does. And they should–credit monitoring should play a crucial part of your preparation stages before applying for an FHA mortgage. The principles we are talking about here can protect you when applying for any big loan, including cash-out refinancing. Regular Monitoring Eliminates Surprises Later Having regular updates about your credit report reduces the chances of something slipping through–errors or evidence of | more...

June 9, 2020

Does Credit Monitoring Hurt Your FICO Score?

By Bruce Reichstein

Credit monitoring is an important service. Many borrowers don’t know what their FICO scores are when first starting out, and it is easy to be surprised by outdated or erroneous information on your credit file if you don’t look at it frequently enough. Do you know what your credit reports say about you? Your credit activity including the most recent events can sometimes make or break a credit application. Too many recent applications for credit is one problem, another may be too much of the wrong kind of credit (junk credit cards, payday loans, etc.) The reason for credit monitoring has a lot to do with protecting your identity from fraudsters and thieves, but many people have never even seen a credit report, let alone understand what is in them. | more...

June 8, 2020

Do You Know How To Dispute Your Credit Reports?

By Joe Wallace

Do you know what it takes to dispute a problem on your credit reports? If you don’t know the contents of your credit report, or how to dispute your report, you may encounter trouble at loan application time. Are you a potential home loan applicant in planning stages of your home loan? It is very important to look at your credit reports and review the contents. If you have never seen your credit report before, you are not ready to fill out a home loan application. Review Your Credit Reports Now Disputing your report doesn’t happen overnight–you need time to dispute inaccurate or outdated information that may be on your credit report. And entries in your credit file that point to you being a victim of identity theft? That can | more...

June 3, 2020

Why Your Lender Offered You A Different Interest Rate Than What You Saw Online

By Joe Wallace

House hunters searching for lenders online and comparing home loan interest rates may be seeing rates reported for FHA home loans below the three percent range, and compared to years past those rates are at incredible lows. In the first week of June 2020, FHA mortgage loan interest rates were reported at 2.68%. According to some data aggregators, that percentage represents a 52-week low at press time. The same sources report the high 52-week average for FHA mortgage loan rates at or near 4%. By the time you read this, those numbers will have changed up or down, but as a snapshot of the rates in a given moment in time these numbers are significant. But the low rates you see online are not offered to all loan applicants; do | more...

June 2, 2020

Credit Reports and Accuracy In Credit Reporting For Your Home Loan

By Joe Wallace

Do you know what your credit report says about you right now? If not, you aren’t truly prepared for your home loan application and may learn the hard way about issues on your credit report including identity theft, reporting errors, etc. If you have not looked at your credit reports, you should not fill out loan paperwork; there are many issues that can affect your mortgage loan application and they are directly related to the contents found in your credit file. Three Credit Reporting Agencies, Three Separate Credit Reports Don’t assume you can just pull a single credit report–consider what all three of the major credit reporting agencies have in their files in your name. These agencies do not share information, which makes it more important for you, the future | more...

Is Your Credit Report Hurting Your Chances At Loan Approval?

May 29, 2020

What Affects Your Credit Most As A Home Loan Applicant?

By Joe Wallace

A home loan is one of the most important investments you can make; buying a home means owning property, and being an owner means the potential to watch your investment grow in value over time. Unlike buying a new vehicle, which begins depreciating as soon as you drive it off the lot, buying a home means anticipating more value from your investment and not less. That is one reason why the process of applying for a home loan and getting approved can be so difficult when looking from the outside of the process. The lender has to make sure the borrower is a good credit risk and there are financial benchmarks for doing just that. Credit approval for any large loan depends a combination of factors. One factor is your | more...

What Credit Score Is Needed For An FHA Mortgage?

May 28, 2020

What To Do Before You Need To Apply For A Mortgage

By Joe Wallace

Planning for your home loan should always include a review of your credit reports and credit monitoring after you do that initial review. If you are committed to buying a home or building one from the ground up on your own lot using a One-Time Close construction loan, you should start reviewing your credit at least 12 months before you fill out any loan paperwork. Why? Because if you find errors or other problems on your credit reports, you will need more time than you think to dispute and correct those credit reports. It’s a bad idea to apply for any loan when you have an open dispute that has not been resolved; take the extra time to successfully resolve the problem before you apply for a new line of | more...

May 21, 2020

Home Loan Preparation: Credit Issues

By Joe Wallace

Are you worried about your credit? Do you need to do to prepare for a mortgage loan application? There are avenues that can help you get ready for a home loan including advice and assistance with credit questions. We’ll examine your options in this area below, but first it is important to review some of the most common credit problems that stand in a borrower’s way. Home loan and refinance loan approval is not impossible, but for some borrowers it’s necessary to take some extra time to work on credit issues. Here are some credit concerns you should pay attention to so you can raise your credit score: Late And Missed Payments This area is one of the main reasons consumers are denied any kind of loan. Late and missed | more...